March 31, 2007

SOME SORT OF SHARK GOT JUMPED OVER SOMEHOW

So here's my take on 24 this season: Nope. If I wanted to watch political wrangling, I'd watch The West Wing. Or C-SPAN. Less talky, more shooty. Also, what is the deal with the running mates on this show? How come every season we've got something like a Ralph Nader-David Duke ticket? I know everyone hates politicians, but can't we for once have a Vice President who is not trying to take over the world and/or sell nukes to bad guys? Logan I could love to hate, but how necessary was it to have two completely unstable VPs in a row? The whole thing stinks. But, to paraphrase Lileks, the show could turn into 24 hours of nature photography, and I still would tune in every Monday.

March 29, 2007

The problem with [Al Gore's] analogy is that anytime he says, "The planet has a fever," people are going to immediately respond, "And the only prescription is more cowbell!" So that doesn't help his cause.

1
Science is what has gotten us into this mess. What we need is a 24 year old drop out at the Goddard Institue to edit scientific papers that don't conform to his religious beliefs. We must insist that the Parks Service remove any literature from its book store that the Grand Canyon is not a product of Noah's flood. Science is what's wrong with this world. We need to push the clock way back

Posted by: bill at March 29, 2007 03:03 AM (+eIOk)

2
Wow, a whole ROOM full of strawmen knocked down. What did they do to you to warrant such violence, bill? Should they ask themselves why you hate them, perhaps?
(Perhaps I should find other reasons for commenting here besides troll-smacking.)

March 26, 2007

UPDATE

My in-laws have been visiting, so I've been away from the computer. We've seen all the military museums in the area, as one is wont to do in these sorts of towns, and we even managed to be surprised by our visit downtown: in one shop we were treated to a right-wing rant wherein the shopkeeper will shoot Hilary Clinton if she becomes president, and in the next shop we met a gay jeweler who spends his free time either jetting to London or running the local indy theater with his partner. If I were Lileks, I'm sure I could write something really cool about that juxtaposition, but I'm not Lileks, so I'll just have to point out that it takes all kinds in this world, don't it?

Anyway, the husband just found out he's been assigned to be a Farsi speaker. He is ecstatic. Life is good around here.

It's interesting what happens when people actually realize that the global warming issue isn't one-sided:

Before the start of the nearly two hour debate the audience polled 57.3% to 29.9% in favor of believing that Global Warming was a crisis, but following the debate the numbers completely flipped to 46.2% to 42.2% in favor of the skeptical point of view.

March 21, 2007

RANDOM THOUGHTS

I want to know how John Edwards' 28,000 sq ft home has the same energy price as my 1900 square foot home! Whatever he's using, I want some.

Also, I have been meaning to write about this for a while now. The minimum wage hikes went into effect at my knitting job. So everyone gets an extra dollar per hour...and we all just got our hours cut. Now there's your basic economics at work! I am now a part of that group of people who end up making less because of the minimum wage hike. Thanks a lot, government jerks.

The other day we got an offer in the mail for a subscription to Time magazine. We cancelled that rag years ago, but I was wooed by the free clock/radio/thermometer they were giving away with the subscription. My mental dialog went like this: I really want that radio, and it's only $20, but then that means I'm saddled with Time. Weighing, weighing. In the end, I decided to do without the radio because I couldn't bear the thought of giving more money to that stupid magazine. Unfortunately, Annika has a free subscription, so she's reduced to tossing her Time when it gets unfreakinreadable.

1
In the past few weeks, Time has mailed me two free issues trying to get me to subscribe. Mind you, I am a volunteer with a soldier support organization, and I subscribe to a whole bunch of magazines that I am not interested in just so I can mail them in my care packages. However, after seeing the covers (the first was something offensive about Iraq, the second insinuated that Cheney was guilty of--something, who knows what), I threw the magazines away. I will NOT send that drivel to deployed troops.

Posted by: Pat in MN at March 21, 2007 10:14 AM (aUYIZ)

2
When I got my first apartment, one of the first things I did was subscribe to Time because in my mind, all grown ups had one such subscription.
Now I realize that if I really do need a Time subscription to be a grown up, I guess I don't really need to be a grown up.

March 20, 2007

WORTH THE EFFORT

I don't know who out there will take my advice and read this blog, but hopefully at least one of you will. I have just sat here for an hour and a half catching up on the neo-neocon's forty-year journey. Is someone out there interested in doing the same? You'll have to set aside time, for you'll need lots of it, but the journey is far worth the effort. Imagine you're reading a book instead of a blog! Grab coffee or cocoa and get comfy. Hit the link, scroll to the bottom, and begin the still-unfolding journey from Vietnam protester to neocon.

2
I've read it. Neo-neo's blog is excellent for when you're in that kind of mood.
Fortunately, I was raised by parents who were Conservative and Libertarian respectively, so I was spared that kind of excess nonsense in my upbringing.

You know, there's a lot of disturbing crap on LGF. But after reading it for years, I've grown fairly numb to the shock value. Psycho Muslims, absurd protests, Jews are pigs and apes, yeah yeah yeah, every day. But this one, this one was too much for me to take.

1
Yep. Don't you wish you lived here too? It's so sad. Our recruiters here have one of the hardest jobs in the Army, and the attitudes we put up with aren't exactly easy on their families either. I miss living in a military community much more than I ever thought I would.

March 19, 2007

OH THE THINGS YOU CAN KNIT...

I'm already nesting for a baby that doesn't even exist yet. How's that for tuning in to my maternal spirit? But motherhood is also a handy excuse for new knitting patterns. Here's what I've been working on for the past two weeks:

The wombat looks highly ridiculous, but I just wanted mine to be the only kid on the block with a handmade wombat. The rhino is actually pretty cool, I think.

I plan to crowd the kid's crib with these things. Next up: an octopus and a snake.

I watched James Cameron's The Lost Tomb of Jesus the other day, and I found myself fairly convinced by what I was hearing. But at the same time, something nagging in the back of my mind made me feel like I was being led down the garden path. I was taken in by the statistical data presented, thinking that it seemed more than just coincidental. But then I read this article in Scientific American called "Has James Cameron Found Jesus's Tomb or Is It Just a Statistical Error?", and now I don't know what to think.

I don't really have a dog in this race. Whether or not those are really Jesus' bones has no effect on how I have chosen to live my life and what kind of person I want to be. I just want to know the truth and not be manipulated.

The problem with documentaries is that the documentarian always has something he wants his viewers to see. The process is inherently manipulative. James Cameron thinks they're Jesus' bones, so he will present evidence that supports that conclusion. Similarly, Al Gore thinks man is causing global warming, and Michael Moore thinks George Bush is evi, so they present evidence of the sort. But I know for a fact that someone could make a documentary showing that dogs are vicious, dangerous beasts. String together footage of snarling pit bulls, stories of children who've been mauled by dogs, and a reenactment of the time my neighbor's yellow lab bit me in the butt cheek, and a documentarian could convince someone who's never been around dogs that they're nasty creatures. That doesn't necessarily make it so.

I don't care if the ossuary belonged to the Jesus or not; I'm not sure what would change if we ever could figure it out, and I don't even really think we can figure it out. The inscription doesn't say Jesus The Messiah, The Guy We Were All Talking About In The Bible with a stick figure being crucified, so it's not so easy to be sure. But I also don't want someone to use math to manipulate me.

Math is too precious to be cheapened that way. Come to think of it, so are Jesus' bones.

March 14, 2007

FOR ME?

Did somebody out there buy us a really nice gift? We received a copy of America's Secret War: Inside the Hidden Worldwide Struggle Between America and its Enemies in the mail today, and neither my husband nor I ordered it. And there's no receipt inside the package, so I can't even figure out if it was supposed to go to some other Amazon buyer or something. Anyway, it seemed blog-related, so I wanted to check and make sure none of you sent me a special gift while I try to track down who really was supposed to get this book.

March 13, 2007

SHE GROKS

If you haven't seen Pamela Hess' interview yet, you must devote nine minutes to watching this video. She's a reporter who went to Iraq to figure out how our servicemembers could possibly have such high morale. She never expected the lesson she learned.

Now she groks.

It is this understanding she's gleaned from Iraq that drives my husband and others to yearn to return to Iraq. My husband will most likely be deploying next year, and that's not soon enough for him: he asked me if he could volunteer to go this fall instead. He aches to go back before it's too late, before there's a drawdown or before President Clinton yanks us out of there. He feels like he's running out of time to get back there and help, and it's killing him. I told him that I understand, but that he's slated for language training and he would be a whole lot more useful if he did that first before he deployed.

(Ha -- People kept telling me there's no 100% safe time to have a baby in the Army; my husband's trying to purposely deploy during the nine months we've set aside. Our breeding plans aren't safe from his convictions!)

2
Being a C-span junkie I saw this live, the whole thing. I was touched and felt priviliged to have been watching. She is real.

Posted by: Ruth H at March 13, 2007 10:34 AM (c54X3)

3
OMG...I have found a kindred spirit in the "I cry when I am impressed with someone's human spirit" affliction. I even learned something watching that...I mean, she conveyed something that I didn't really understand completely and I feel smarter for having watched that.

4
I know exactly what you mean. Even while hubby was deployed it was always, "When I deploy again..." It was never "if".
Sometimes I think he might believe the fate of the entire war and the free world rests on his upholding his end of the effort in-theater.
It's very bittersweet.

Posted by: airforcewife at March 14, 2007 10:05 AM (0dU3f)

5
I understand what you mean. I am in the RI Guard and wengt for OIF I. Just transferred to a unit that returned in OCT 2+2 = I probably wont get back to the sand box and though my family cant understand it, I'd like to go back, like your husband "before its too late".

March 10, 2007

300

If you're already excited about the release of the movie 300, or if you don't know what the heck it is, you should read Victor Davis Hanson's review of the movie. Me, I'm excited. We haven't seen a movie in the theater since Superman returned, but we might have to make an exception for this one.

1
We saw it last night. AMAZING movie. Equal to Braveheart in emotional impact and creation of the desire for courage and valor. And excellent dialog.
There was one scene in particular where the audience went nuts and applauded and cheered. And at the end it got a very loud ovation.
You won't regret seeing it.

Posted by: airforcewife at March 11, 2007 03:25 AM (0dU3f)

2
Ditto airforcewife, except the audience part, I live in a blue state.
I NEVER go to the movies, but I had to see these one.
Go. See. This.Movie!

Posted by: tim at March 12, 2007 03:21 AM (nno0f)

3
I went to go see this movie, however I found it too "shallow" and simplistic, but I loved the whole idea of paralleling it with America and the war on terrorism (I didn't read VDH's piece, but I assume that is what is suggested). The only thing that troubled me though is that this movie can be watched by anyone and seen basically as this call of "never give up and fight to the end, even if your position is futile and your countrymen don't agree with your POV." Okay, fine and dandy for us...but any jihadi watching this movie would nod their head in agreement too.
The whole time I was thinking...wow, this is such a propaganda film for the pro-war contigent of the war on terror. But today I spoke with someone at work, who had seen the movie and mentioned that, and he said...oh, yeah, now that you mention it, I guess it was, but otherwise I would have never thought so.
I loved the Queen's speech to the senators though...fabulous! We need Laura do make such a speech...however it only made sense 'cos the King was leading the troops. We need some Generals' wives to make speeches.
And there is nothing better than watching that movie surrounded by America's warrior class: about half the cinema or more were soldiers from the local Army base...it was pretty hooah!

I digress a little, but people say only the bottom of the barrel go to the military but I definitely don't think that's true. A lot of my friends from college have joined because college life just wasn't for them and they're all smart kids (none of us scored lower than 99 on the ASVAB). I went to college for awhile myself, but both ran out of money (College is expensive!) and decided that it was far too dumbed down and ... hands-off to be enjoyable. I wasn't satisfied with half-sleeping in a classroom while the professor rambled on about stuff I didn't care at all about just so in 4 years I could take my $100,000 debt and get a reasonable job (which a college degree doesn't even guarantee these days). Some of us just want to do something that matters. Being a college student hardly accomplished anything -- I'd rather be out there fighting for something that shows results. Saving people from gunshot wounds, giving people gunshot wounds or leading others to do the same.

We stood in the driveway and hacked at the ice with our heels until a yard of rubble cluttered the pavement. I thought of this today while listening to a Medved show about a WaPo piece on marriage; seems only the well-off can marry these days, and the poor decline the opportunity. A caller  male, age 31  noted how he didnt want to marry, and didnt want kids, because they would ruin his freedom. Medved gently pointed out how things change, and gave the fellow a useful piece of news: kids are fun. You never consider that when youre fancy-free and unburdened with diaper-filling squall-o-matic obligation units, but theyre fun, in ways you can never predict. You fill your day with all sorts of important tasks, but in the end nothing beats standing in the drive way in the wan March light, laughing and cracking the ice. That's the stuff you remember on your deathbed, I'll bet. That's the stuff you remember when you leave the building and strap on the wings.

I made a baby blanket. Now we just have to make the baby.
But I've found a new motto: If at first you don't succeed, drink boatloads of margaritas for 5-7 days and try again.

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There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of living.--The Count of Monte Cristo--

While our troops go out to defend our country, it is incumbent upon us to make the country worth defending.--Deskmerc--

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Contrary to what you've just seen, war is neither glamorous nor fun. There are no winners, only losers. There are no good wars, with the following exceptions: The American Revolution, WWII, and the Star Wars Trilogy.--Bart Simpson--

If you want to be a peacemaker, you've gotta learn to kick ass.--Sheriff of East Houston, Superman II--

Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave a lot of useless noisy baggage behind.--Jed Babbin--

Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality.--President John F. Kennedy--

War is a bloody, killing business. You've got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours.--General Patton--

Those who threaten us and kill innocents around the world do not need to be treated more sensitively. They need to be destroyed.--Dick Cheney--

The Flag has to come first if freedom is to survive.--Col Steven Arrington--

The purpose of diplomacy isn't to make us feel good about Eurocentric diplomatic skills, and having countries from the axis of chocolate tie our shoelaces together does nothing to advance our infantry.--Sir George--

I just don't care about the criticism I receive every day, because I know the cause I defend is right.--Oriol--

It's days like this when we're reminded that freedom isn't free.--Chaplain Jacob--

Bumper stickers aren't going to accomplish some of the missions this country is going to face.--David Smith--

The success of multilateralism is measured not merely by following a process, but by achieving results.--President Bush--

Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life.
--John Galt--

First, go buy a six pack and swig it all down. Then, watch Ace Ventura. And after that, buy a Hard Rock Cafe shirt and come talk to me. You really need to lighten up, man.
--Sminklemeyer--

If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending, if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained -- we must fight!--Patrick Henry--

America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American.--President George W. Bush--

are usually just cheerleading sessions, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing but a soothing reduction in blood pressure brought about by the narcotic high of being agreed with.--Bill Whittle

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
--John Stuart Mill--

We are determined that before the sun sets on this terrible struggle, our flag will be recognized throughout the world as a symbol of freedom on the one hand and of overwhelming force on the other.--General George Marshall--

We can continue to try and clean up the gutters all over the world and spend all of our resources looking at just the dirty spots and trying to make them clean. Or we can lift our eyes up and look into the skies and move forward in an evolutionary way.
--Buzz Aldrin--

America is the greatest, freest and most decent society in existence. It is an oasis of goodness in a desert of cynicism and barbarism. This country, once an experiment unique in the world, is now the last best hope for the world.
--Dinesh D'Souza--

Recent anti-Israel protests remind us again of our era's peculiar alliance: the most violent, intolerant, militantly religious movement in modern times has the peace movement on its side.--James Lileks--

As a wise man once said: we will pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
Unless the price is too high, the burden too great, the hardship too hard, the friend acts disproportionately, and the foe fights back. In which case, we need a timetable.
--James Lileks--

I am not willing to kill a man so that he will agree with my faith, but I am prepared to kill a man so that he cannot force my compatriots to submit to his.
--Froggy--

You can say what you want about President Bush; but the truth is that he can take a punch. The man has taken a swift kick in the crotch for breakfast every day for 6 years and he keeps getting up with a smile in his heart and a sense of swift determination to see the job through to the best of his abilties.
--Varifrank--

In a perfect world, We'd live in peace and love and harmony with each oither and the world, but then, in a perfect world, Yoko would have taken the bullet.
--SarahBellum--

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.--Ronald Reagan--

America is rather like life. You can usually find in it what you look for. It will probably be interesting, and it is sure to be large.--E.M. Forster--

Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your HONOR. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse.--Mark Twain--

The Enlightenment was followed by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, which touched every European state, sparked vicious guerrilla conflicts across the Continent and killed millions. Then, things really turned ugly after the invention of soccer.--Iowahawk--

Every time I meet an Iraqi Army Soldier or Policeman that I haven't met before, I shake his hand and thank him for his service. Many times I am thanked for being here and helping his country. I always tell them that free people help each other and that those that truly value freedom help those seeking it no matter the cost.--Jack Army--

Right, left - the terms are useless nowadays anyway. There are statists, and there are individualists. There are pessimists, and optimists. There are people who look backwards and trust in the West, and those who look forward and trust in The World. Those are the continuums that seem to matter the most right now.--Lileks--

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
--Winston Churchill--

A man or a nation is not placed upon this earth to do merely what is pleasant and what is profitable. It is often called upon to carry out what is both unpleasant and unprofitable, but if it is obviously right it is mere shirking not to undertake it.--Arthur Conan Doyle--

A man who has nothing which he cares about more than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the existing of better men than himself.--John Stuart Mill--

After the attacks on September 11, 2001, most of the sheep, that is, most citizens in America said, "Thank God I wasn't on one of those planes." The sheepdogs, the warriors, said, "Dear God, I wish I could have been on one of those planes. Maybe I could have made a difference."--Dave Grossman--

At heart I’m a cowboy; my attitude is if they’re not going to stand up and fight for what they believe in then they can go pound sand.--Bill Whittle--

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.--Alexander Tyler--

By that time a village half-wit could see what generations of professors had pretended not to notice.--Atlas Shrugged--

I kept asking Clarence why our world seemed to be collapsing and everything seemed so shitty. And he'd say, "That's the way it goes, but don't forget, it goes the other way too."--Alabama Worley--

So Bush is history, and we have a new president who promises to heal the planet, and yet the jihadists don’t seem to have got the Obama message that there are no enemies, just friends we haven’t yet held talks without preconditions with.
--Mark Steyn--

"I had started alone in this journey called life, people started
gathering up on the way, and the caravan got bigger everyday."--Urdu couplet

The book and the sword are the two things that control the world. We either gonna control them through knowledge and influence their minds, or we gonna bring the sword and take their heads off.--RZA--

It's a daily game of public Frogger, hopping frantically to avoid being crushed under the weight of your own narcissism, banality, and plain old stupidity.--Mary Katharine Ham--

There are more instances of the abridgment of freedoms
of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.--James Madison--

It is in the heat of emotion that good people must remember to stand on principle.--Larry Elder--

Please show this to the president and ask him to remember the wishes of the forgotten man, that is, the one who dared to vote against him. We expect to be tramped on but we do wish the stepping would be a little less hard.--from a letter to Eleanor Roosevelt--

The world economy depends every day on some engineer, farmer, architect, radiator shop owner, truck driver or plumber getting up at 5AM, going to work, toiling hard, and producing real wealth so that an array of bureaucrats, regulators, and redistributors can manage the proper allotment of much of the natural largess produced.--VDH--

Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves.--Marcelene Cox--